Kudankulam nuclear plant to restart soon

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) will soon restart generation of 1,000 MW power as all the mandatory tests have been completed, a senior official said on Friday.

"Now an important milestone have to be reached is unit-1 restart and achieving commercial operation at the earliest so that KNPP can contribute financially to the million unit targets of the NPCIL," director R S Sundar said in Chennai in his Independence Day address to the employees and their families.

Sundar said the first unit has been shutdown for annual maintenance, which is about to be completed.

The power generation in KNPP's second unit is to be met on top priority this financial year, he said.

India's atomic power plant operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) will set up two 1,000 mw Russian reactors at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district, 650 km from here. The total outlay for the project is over Rs.17,000 crore.

The KNPP is India's first pressurised water reactor belonging to the light water reactor category.

The first unit attained criticality in July 2013, which is the beginning of the fission process.